Harry Potter Will Send Us All To Hell

Got your attention with the headline, didn't I?

I have several other things in my blog file, one of which is timely and I wanted to report -- will do later. But I have to get this Harry Potter thing off my chest.

After a nice early dinner at Carrabba's Saturday night (opt for the lentil and Italian soup for a starter -- you won't be disappointed), I took Melinda to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

I'll preface this by saying that I am not really a fan and have not read any of the books, but I do have an open mind and have an opinion, as I do on most everything else.

I went for three reasons:

1. Melinda is a big fan and has read some of the books.

2. I wanted to see this billion dollar kid from whom J. K. Rowling has amassed a fortune.

3. John Hagee, short and rotund senior pastor and fundamentalist televangelist at Cornerstone mega-church in Houston, said I was endanger of Hell if I went.

Thanks, Pastor Hagee, but the Hell part remains to be seen -- I haven't died yet. To back up his claim, Hagee is offering a DVD on Potter and other supernatural stuff for only $22.00 plus shipping and handling for those of us who may be interested.

Anyway, we go to the movie, and I think it is pretty good even though I'm not familiar with much of the background information that would be helpful to better understand what it is all about. But I do understand the basic concept of good versus evil. If I am wrong here, somebody, other than Hagee or the likes, needs to set me straight.

Harry Potter is good, but his reputation has been tarnished in the previous film, and Lord Voldermort is evil. Harry and his little band of students go to Hogwart where he teaches them about being a wizard, much of which is concerned with learning to wave this "stick" to knock people on their butts or levitate them. All of this is in preparation for fighting against the Dark forces. The small group of students name themselves Dumbledore's army. Professor Delores Umbridge, appointed by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, is on a rampage to prevent Harry's and his proteges' efforts.

It looks like Harry saves his reputation, but the door is apparently open for another episode of this because I did not see the final battle of good versus evil. I need help here from Potter fans.

To date 330,000 people worldwide have seen the movie since it opened Wednesday. I don't know what the average cost of a ticket, but we are talking about tons of money. Hagee may be pissed because some of the money could have gone into his coffers.

I will report that I saw only one demon in the theater (expecting to see all kinds of witches, etc.)
This was a little kid who squeezed in front of us four times going to who knows where. I suspect he went somewhere to recharge his "stick." By the way he did say "excuse me" a couple of times.

Contrary to Hagee's thinking that kids who watched the movie are going to want to be wizards, practice sorcery or witchcraft or the like, leaving the threater I did not see one kid pull on his mom's coattail and say that he/she, upon growing up, wanted to be a wizard instead of a fireman or nurse.

I cannot comprehend the religious fundamentalist opposition to "Harry Potter" or Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" or C. S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" -- apparently they do not possess the depth of thinking of these great writers.